Vancouver businesses are gearing up for what some executives say resembles the business bump they received during the 2010 Winter Olympics: Pop superstar Taylor Swift is coming to town.
She has a passionately loyal fan base that includes countless so-called Swifties eager to follow the singer across the continent to attend shows despite astronomical ticket prices.
The December 6, 7 and 8 concerts at BC Place will be the last stop on the artist’s Eras Tour, which includes 152 concerts in 22 countries on five continents. It has reportedly grossed more than US$1 billion and is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
The Vancouver concerts alone are estimated to have a combined capacity of 163,000, and event ticket search engine SeatPick recently calculated that they are the priciest performances of Swift’s entire North American tour, at US$4,459 on average.
Swift’s final concert on December 8 is the most expensive of the three local shows, fetching on average US$5,429 or $7,582 per seat, .
“The numbers they are saying are pretty much right,” Vancouver Ticket and Tour Service owner Kingsley Bailey told BIV.
“The first show on the Friday night is not as much in demand but a lot of people who go to the first show may pick to go to the second or third shows.”
Business is booming for Bailey, who makes a margin when he resells tickets.
Many prospective concert goers buy tickets from him because he has earned a reputation for reliability from decades in the business.
Stories abound of ticket buyers shelling out big bucks on online platforms, such as Facebook Marketplace, and then getting scammed by fraudsters.
“I’m holding onto my storefront address [at 779 Beatty Street] because people want to know for sure that they’re getting tickets,” he said.
“They want to know they’re dealing with a bricks-and-mortar operator. They want to know that if there’s a problem, they can get a hold of the person and get it looked after.”
Hotel prices skyrocket
Early December tends to be a slow time for Vancouver’s hotel sector.
Restaurants are busy with corporate holiday parties and the start of the festive season, but hotel occupancy is sluggish, according to hotel operators and data collectors.
But occupancy has soared the weekend of Swift’s concerts compared with the previous weekend, Laura Baxter, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar, told BIV.
Her company, a global provider of real estate data, analytics and news, on November 1 determined that the Metro Vancouver occupancy rate the weekend prior to the Vancouver leg of the Eras Tour was:
•53 per cent on Friday;
•48 per cent on Saturday; and
•25 per cent on Sunday.
On the weekend of the concerts, occupancy soars to:
•80 per cent on Friday;
•81 per cent on Saturday; and
•61 per cent on Sunday.
Downtown Vancouver’s hotel occupancy rate is much higher the weekend of December 6-8:
•85 per cent on Friday;
•86 per cent on Saturday; and
•74 per cent on Sunday.
Baxter said that occupancy on the same dates last year increased by 20 percentage points from November 1 onward. As such, there is plenty of time for hotels to fully book up.
“There is dynamic pricing based off algorithms and quite sophisticated revenue management systems,” Baxter said. “There are also some revenue managers who set prices manually.”
Boutique hotels, such as the Opus Hotel and the St. Regis Hotel, tend to set rates manually.
“Usually on December 6, 7 and 8 we would probably be 35 per cent occupied,” said Rob MacDonald, who owns the St. Regis Hotel at 602 Dunsmuir Street.
“That has gone up to 100 per cent occupancy and we’ve at least doubled the room rates from what we would normally be charging at that time of year—more than double.”
He said his team was initially happy just to make the bookings, but then realized that they would be able to substantially raise prices.
Global hotel brands sometimes raise prices more quickly and more steeply.
A room with a king-sized bed at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel was marketed in October for $355 per night on the weekend before Swift’s concerts, according to Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) data.
That room’s price then soared to $1,299 per night the weekend of the shows.
Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) rates have similarly soared, as Vancouverites cash in on the demand.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in the city in the past,” said Opus Hotel general manager Sarah Vallely, whose hotel has similarly substantially raised rates.
“The only thing I can compare it to would be the Olympics, and I’m assuming the FIFA World Cup in 2026 is going to be quite similar.”
Vallely said she plans to set up multiple Christmas trees in her hotel’s lobby and have a station where visitors can receive free friendship bracelets and then take selfies of themselves with the Christmas trees.
Swift reportedly spent her childhood at Pine Ridge Farm, an 11-acre Christmas tree farm in Reading, Pennsylvania, so Christmas trees are special to many of her fans.
She is also known for wearing friendship bracelets.
Retailers cash in on Swift mania
Who doesn’t love a contest?
That is what executives at KITS Eyewear (TSX:KITS) thought when they were able to acquire a pair of 200-level seats for one of Swift’s Vancouver concerts.
They launched a promotion where they offered customers who spent at least $50 the chance to get 50 entries to win those tickets, bundled with a room at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel and airfare from wherever they were in North America—“an all-expenses paid trip to Vancouver,” senior partnerships manager Katie Dempsey told BIV.
Dempsey said the contest is a fun way to drive sales and engage with customers.
Other retailers are stocking shelves with Swift-related merchandise.
Durriya Rehan, who owns the Yaletown clothing and accessories boutique Fine Finds, is selling glittery dresses such as the ones Swift wears on stage.
BC Place bans guests from bringing purses, other than ones that are small and see-through, to ensure no prohibited items are brought inside.
That is why Rehan has stocked up with those kinds of purses—as well as small charms that owners can attach to them. She is also selling Christmas tree ornaments that say things such as “Swifty.”
Customers who can show that they have a ticket to a concert get a 10-per-cent discount, Rehan said.
Nearby Mavi Jeans is also getting into the spirit.
Arkun Durmaz, the Canadian president of the Istanbul, Turkey-based company, told BIV that his stores normally carry T-shirts with cat images.
Swift is known to love cats, so the store is increasing its supply of those items.
“We often have anywhere from six to 10 different cat T-shirts in the store, and we’re bringing more in,” he said. “Normally in December, we don’t have them, but we’ll bring some in this December.”
The entire main Yaletown shopping strip is slated to become what the Yaletown Business Improvement Association (YBIA) is calling TaylorTown for an event December 7, its marketing coordinator Victor Hwangbo told BIV.
The YBIA will put up Christmas trees for the event and have seasonal decorations that will be up for weeks, he said.
Bars and restaurants court concertgoers
With so many Swift fans expected to dine out before or after the concerts, restaurants and bars are trying to capture attention with special drinks themed around the singer.
Swift’s favourite number is 13 and her favourite cocktail is reputed to be the French Blonde. Both pieces of trivia inspired Craft Beer Market to offer 13-per-cent discounts for ticket holders on $13.13 Swifties French Blonde cocktails.
Glowbal Group is hosting $49 brunches and $79 dinners on December 7 and 8, when diners can order Swift-themed cocktails and enjoy a bracelet-making kit to craft creations to wear and trade with fellow fans, owner Emad Yacoub told BIV.
A makeup artist will be on site to add pizazz to Swifties’ faces, he said. A selfie station and themed décor will also help Swift’s fans capture lasting memories of the weekend, Yacoub added.
“We’re about to get our Yaletown Brewing Co. windows painted with Taylor Swift lyrics and other Taylor Swift things,” said Julie Wigley, chief operating officer at that restaurant’s owner, Mark James Management Ltd.
Her brewery normally offers $5 beer specials during Vancouver Canucks games, and Wigley said it will do the same thing on the Swift concert dates.
“We’re going to do $5 Taylor Swift dad beers,” she said. “If any of the dads or guardians aren’t going to the concert and need somewhere to sit and wait, we’re going to offer drink specials to those who are waiting to pick up their people from the concert,” she said.
